The Republican presidential contest is the least consequential drama on the Badger State's crowded political scene these days.

Reuters

As Mitt Romney continues his joyless death march to the GOP presidential nomination, Tuesday's primary in Wisconsin presents the latest ostensible turningpoint. There are also delegate-awarding primaries in Washington, D.C., and Maryland, but it's Wisconsin that marks the latest this-could-be-it-folks showdown of heartland conservative voters -- you know, just like Illinois a couple of weeks ago, or Ohio on Super Tuesday, or Michigan back on Feb. 28. Once again, Romney is favored to win but vulnerable to surprise, and neither a close win nor a close loss would likely have the power to either a) drive out his determined rivals or b) alter the mathematical near-inevitability of a Romney nomination. They've all been turning points -- it's just that, turn after turn, the primary keeps on going, like the Indy 500.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin is a hotbed of fascinating political stories -- the primary just isn't one of them. Here are five things happening in Wisconsin politics more interesting than the Republican primary -- plus one more bit of big news in the state.

1. The Walker recall. After a year of turmoil and acrimony following his successful effort to jam public-worker bargaining reforms through the state legislature, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker faces a recall election. On Friday, the date was set for June 5 by a state board. The recall has roiled the political landscape of what was previously a more or less normal swing state, mobilizing liberals and public workers by the thousands -- the volunteer signature-gatherers collected a million anti-Walker petitions for the recall drive -- even as Walker has become a hero to the national conservative movement. Now, as the candidates campaign for the hearts of the state's GOP electorate, which is strongly on Walker's side, Romney and Santorum have expressed strong support for his initiatives. The early-summer election stands to be expensive, hard-fought and bruisingly negative -- a crucial preview of the November presidential stakes as well as a referendum on Walker's brand of hard-charging Tea Party conservatism. Three Republican state senators also face recalls; Democrats netted two seats in the state senate during a first wave of recalls last year, one short of taking the majority.

2. The Democratic gubernatorial primary. Last week, Walker's 2010 opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, announced his candidacy for the recall race. (Under Wisconsin law, a recall is a fully contested election with challengers, not a mere yes-or-no referendum on the recalled official; the Democratic candidates will face off in a May 8 primary.) As divisive as Walker has proven to be, the field of Democratic candidates against him includes no clear standout for progressives to rally around. Kathleen Falk, a former county executive, was considered the favorite before Barrett got in and is supported by major unions, who don't see Barrett as a champion. But now liberals face a potentially wrenching choice between the true-blue liberal who embodies the labor spirit animating the anti-Walker push (Falk) and a better-known but less ideological choice who might give them a better chance of winning (Barrett).

3. The court blow to Walker's anti-collective bargaining law. Walker's attempt to rein in collective bargaining suffered a setback last week when a federal court struck down some key parts of the legislation, ruling that the fact that Walker exempted police and fire unions -- a move his critics saw as a politically expedient attempt to keep public-safety workers in his corner -- made the measure a violation of equal protection.

4. The embezzlement investigation of former Walker staffers. It began as a relatively routine investigation by the Milwaukee district attorney into whether staffers conducted campaign business on government time during Walker's time as county executive, prior to being elected governor. But it has deepened into a probe of former staffers with ties to Walker on serious charges including embezzlement. Waker hasn't been implicated thus far in the closely held, grand jury-like investigation, but the taint of potential misconduct has contributed to increasing public skepticism of the controversial governor.

5. On top of all that, an abortion-clinic bombing. On Sunday night, an explosive device went off outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Grand Chute, Wisconsin. The chemical-filled plastic bottle caused minor structural damage and no injuries. Social issues haven't been the focus of any of Wisconsin's many political fights, but the shocking incident served as a reminder of the seriousness of the issues at hand.

6. Bonus story: Midwest Airlines cancels cookies. With all this political drama roiling the atmosphere, the No. 1 story on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's website Monday was still bigger news: Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines plans to stop serving hot chocolate-chip cookies on all its flights.

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Should you drink more coffee? Should you take melatonin? Can you train yourself to need less sleep? A physician’s guide to sleep in a stressful age.

During residency, Iworked hospital shifts that could last 36 hours, without sleep, often without breaks of more than a few minutes. Even writing this now, it sounds to me like I’m bragging or laying claim to some fortitude of character. I can’t think of another type of self-injury that might be similarly lauded, except maybe binge drinking. Technically the shifts were 30 hours, the mandatory limit imposed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, but we stayed longer because people kept getting sick. Being a doctor is supposed to be about putting other people’s needs before your own. Our job was to power through.

The shifts usually felt shorter than they were, because they were so hectic. There was always a new patient in the emergency room who needed to be admitted, or a staff member on the eighth floor (which was full of late-stage terminally ill people) who needed me to fill out a death certificate. Sleep deprivation manifested as bouts of anger and despair mixed in with some euphoria, along with other sensations I’ve not had before or since. I remember once sitting with the family of a patient in critical condition, discussing an advance directive—the terms defining what the patient would want done were his heart to stop, which seemed likely to happen at any minute. Would he want to have chest compressions, electrical shocks, a breathing tube? In the middle of this, I had to look straight down at the chart in my lap, because I was laughing. This was the least funny scenario possible. I was experiencing a physical reaction unrelated to anything I knew to be happening in my mind. There is a type of seizure, called a gelastic seizure, during which the seizing person appears to be laughing—but I don’t think that was it. I think it was plain old delirium. It was mortifying, though no one seemed to notice.

His paranoid style paved the road for Trumpism. Now he fears what’s been unleashed.

Glenn Beck looks like the dad in a Disney movie. He’s earnest, geeky, pink, and slightly bulbous. His idea of salty language is bullcrap.

The atmosphere at Beck’s Mercury Studios, outside Dallas, is similarly soothing, provided you ignore the references to genocide and civilizational collapse. In October, when most commentators considered a Donald Trump presidency a remote possibility, I followed audience members onto the set of The Glenn Beck Program, which airs on Beck’s website, theblaze.com. On the way, we passed through a life-size replica of the Oval Office as it might look if inhabited by a President Beck, complete with a portrait of Ronald Reagan and a large Norman Rockwell print of a Boy Scout.

Why the ingrained expectation that women should desire to become parents is unhealthy

In 2008, Nebraska decriminalized child abandonment. The move was part of a "safe haven" law designed to address increased rates of infanticide in the state. Like other safe-haven laws, parents in Nebraska who felt unprepared to care for their babies could drop them off in a designated location without fear of arrest and prosecution. But legislators made a major logistical error: They failed to implement an age limitation for dropped-off children.

Within just weeks of the law passing, parents started dropping off their kids. But here's the rub: None of them were infants. A couple of months in, 36 children had been left in state hospitals and police stations. Twenty-two of the children were over 13 years old. A 51-year-old grandmother dropped off a 12-year-old boy. One father dropped off his entire family -- nine children from ages one to 17. Others drove from neighboring states to drop off their children once they heard that they could abandon them without repercussion.

Since the end of World War II, the most crucial underpinning of freedom in the world has been the vigor of the advanced liberal democracies and the alliances that bound them together. Through the Cold War, the key multilateral anchors were NATO, the expanding European Union, and the U.S.-Japan security alliance. With the end of the Cold War and the expansion of NATO and the EU to virtually all of Central and Eastern Europe, liberal democracy seemed ascendant and secure as never before in history.

Under the shrewd and relentless assault of a resurgent Russian authoritarian state, all of this has come under strain with a speed and scope that few in the West have fully comprehended, and that puts the future of liberal democracy in the world squarely where Vladimir Putin wants it: in doubt and on the defensive.

The same part of the brain that allows us to step into the shoes of others also helps us restrain ourselves.

You’ve likely seen the video before: a stream of kids, confronted with a single, alluring marshmallow. If they can resist eating it for 15 minutes, they’ll get two. Some do. Others cave almost immediately.

This “Marshmallow Test,” first conducted in the 1960s, perfectly illustrates the ongoing war between impulsivity and self-control. The kids have to tamp down their immediate desires and focus on long-term goals—an ability that correlates with their later health, wealth, and academic success, and that is supposedly controlled by the front part of the brain. But a new study by Alexander Soutschek at the University of Zurich suggests that self-control is also influenced by another brain region—and one that casts this ability in a different light.

“Well, you’re just special. You’re American,” remarked my colleague, smirking from across the coffee table. My other Finnish coworkers, from the school in Helsinki where I teach, nodded in agreement. They had just finished critiquing one of my habits, and they could see that I was on the defensive.

I threw my hands up and snapped, “You’re accusing me of being too friendly? Is that really such a bad thing?”

“Well, when I greet a colleague, I keep track,” she retorted, “so I don’t greet them again during the day!” Another chimed in, “That’s the same for me, too!”

Unbelievable, I thought. According to them, I’m too generous with my hellos.

When I told them I would do my best to greet them just once every day, they told me not to change my ways. They said they understood me. But the thing is, now that I’ve viewed myself from their perspective, I’m not sure I want to remain the same. Change isn’t a bad thing. And since moving to Finland two years ago, I’ve kicked a few bad American habits.

Modern slot machines develop an unbreakable hold on many players—some of whom wind up losing their jobs, their families, and even, as in the case of Scott Stevens, their lives.

On the morning of Monday, August 13, 2012, Scott Stevens loaded a brown hunting bag into his Jeep Grand Cherokee, then went to the master bedroom, where he hugged Stacy, his wife of 23 years. “I love you,” he told her.

Stacy thought that her husband was off to a job interview followed by an appointment with his therapist. Instead, he drove the 22 miles from their home in Steubenville, Ohio, to the Mountaineer Casino, just outside New Cumberland, West Virginia. He used the casino ATM to check his bank-account balance: $13,400. He walked across the casino floor to his favorite slot machine in the high-limit area: Triple Stars, a three-reel game that cost $10 a spin. Maybe this time it would pay out enough to save him.

A report will be shared with lawmakers before Trump’s inauguration, a top advisor said Friday.

Updated at 2:20 p.m.

President Obama asked intelligence officials to perform a “full review” of election-related hacking this week, and plans will share a report of its findings with lawmakers before he leaves office on January 20, 2017.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Eric Schultz said Friday that the investigation will reach all the way back to 2008, and will examine patterns of “malicious cyber-activity timed to election cycles.” He emphasized that the White House is not questioning the results of the November election.

Asked whether a sweeping investigation could be completed in the time left in Obama’s final term—just six weeks—Schultz replied that intelligence agencies will work quickly, because the preparing the report is “a major priority for the president of the United States.”

A professor of cognitive science argues that the world is nothing like the one we experience through our senses.

As we go about our daily lives, we tend to assume that our perceptions—sights, sounds, textures, tastes—are an accurate portrayal of the real world. Sure, when we stop and think about it—or when we find ourselves fooled by a perceptual illusion—we realize with a jolt that what we perceive is never the world directly, but rather our brain’s best guess at what that world is like, a kind of internal simulation of an external reality. Still, we bank on the fact that our simulation is a reasonably decent one. If it wasn’t, wouldn’t evolution have weeded us out by now? The true reality might be forever beyond our reach, but surely our senses give us at least an inkling of what it’s really like.